Dilip Saraf's blog

During my 10 years of career coaching—and management consulting prior to that—I have found a counterintuitive phenomenon in management that defies common sense. I have also seen this when I was heading an engineering organization in my first career, more than 20 years back.

There is a branding craze out there. Ever since Tom Peters launched the personal branding awareness in the early ‘90s through his writings and books there has been a steady drumbeat of focus on branding by career professionals. Nearly half of my clients who come to me start their sessions with some reference for their need to build their brand.

During a typical job search, referencing is one the terminal states of the process. In almost all cases I find my clients calling me with urgency to round up the right references so that they can conclude the anxious process and land an offer. This blog is about how to manage this process well so that your job offer is not delayed—or even compromised—by this important step.

As a career coach I have now worked with over 5,000 clients globally during the past 11 years. The most common need with which clients come to me is to break into management from being an individual contributor. A notch below that is their need on how to get into executive ranks (above a senior director), followed by how to be more effective in their leadership roles where they work.

Clients often call me when they are facing a conflict of some type in their careers. Although a dictionary defines a conflict as a fight, battle, or a prolonged struggle between opposing forces, a more benign and psychological view defines it as an emotional distress due to the opposition of incompatible wishes in a person or between two parties.

With the new Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson now in the spotlight for lying about his academic qualifications, the focus on people lying on their résumés is back in the media. In his case his degree in Computer Science that appears on his résumé was found to be a misstatement.

With the improving job market and exploding new technology areas in which new talent is desperately needed (Big data, HTML-5, Mobile Payments, Gaming, Social Media, to name just a few in the technology space alone), many are seeking greener pastures and are aggressively looking to change their jobs.